books translated from English to Welsh seem to me to be very faithful to the original. Overly so in my opinion… “Mae hi’n m… ooo… or ddiflas” " she is s… ooo… oo boring". (The first page of a translation of a David Waliams book - Cyfrinach Nani Crwca- I personally wouldn’t bother reading any more than one page unless you want to learn how to read English in Welsh.)
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Mmm, not really, not necessarily - you’ll hear people use it - I’d personally expect to see it written more than spoken, but that’s probably just a function of where I live…
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I have as well - and perhaps you are right. Certainly in the natural logic of the spoken language - both now and in the past - the idea of using a stative verb in the preterite goes against the grain. And we must remember of course that in any language - though in some more than in others - the formal register is to some extent artificial, and liable to be ‘played with’ by its practitioners.
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What about cytuno? I’ve seen both Roedd y …yn cytuno and cytunodd y …
What’s the difference?
Verbs like cytuno (agree) can be used as stative verbs and as active verbs. If you look at “Everyone was agreeing that slavery is wrong”, the use is stative (Roedd pawb yn cytuno…)
Compare this with a one-time action like “He agreed to pay the fine set by the judge.” (Cytunodd e…)
It’s a subtle difference, so it’s nothing to worry too much about in speech – people will still understand you if you use the “wrong” version.
Now, I wouldn’t say “everyone was agreeing…” in English. It sounds wrong to my ear. I’d say “everyone agreed…”
The specific is example that lead to my question was on a listening exercise:
Person A: “rhaid iddo fe stopio chwarae rygbi”
Person B: “roedd y doctor yn cytuno”
I really don’t understand why it wasn’t “cytunodd y doctor” as to me it seems like a one time action.
Or is it because to use the pretorite you need to agree to do something? If you just agree with someone, you need then you use the imperfect?
English is not my first language, so I am bound to make mistakes like this.
Since you are after a level of grammatical precision that I can’t provide, I won’t try to answer further, as I am just not sure.
Paging @Deborah-SSi , @siaronjames and @garethrking for more insights.
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roedd is used here because, as you said before, “everyone was agreeing” sounds wrong so what we might say (instead of the short-cut “everyone agreed”) is “everyone was in agreement”, which is stative.
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… but you could say “everyone was in agreement”. I suspect that the distinction you offer, re agreeing to do something, may amount to the same thing, as that really is a matter of making or assenting to a decision (a point action) rather than holding an opinion (a state). I imagine that the doctor is going to continue to hold the same opinion about the rugby on an ongoing basis.
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Snap!
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Thanks everyone, that’s really helpful.
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